Who Needs the Sunshine

by Atuhor Name

CH. 16 Monsters

Monsters...

Twilight and Naudia had been walking for over an hour now, and every time Twilight looked back, even at this distance, the Emperor Dune Crab looked no less gigantic. Twilight honestly wondered if there was any distance where its scale wouldn't be eminent.

Even now, she could almost hear the titan's glacially slow footsteps.

Twilight ran into Naudia's outstretched hoof. She glanced over at the changeling queen. Naudia looked alert and worried, so Twilight immediately began to scan the horizon for danger.

Then the sand in front of them exploded upwards, revealing a dragon!

Wait-no, that wasn't a dragon, that was the thing Twilight saw in the book... she was trying to recall its name, when Naudia roughly shoved her out of the way.

"Wake up!" The changeling queen shouted at her. "WAKE UP AND FIGHT, TWILIGHT! IT'S HIM OR US NOW!"

The dragon, frustrated that its attack missed, growled and began to charge, its jaws dripping acid that sizzled as it hit the ground.

Twilight just barely managed to leap out of the way of the monster as its outstretched jaws sliced through the air. As the beast began scrabbling for purchase on the sand to turn around and get at her, Twilight shot a couple bolts of magic at it.

They had almost no effect.

Now even angrier, the beast gave up trying to bite her and tried its acid spit again. Twilight barely managed to teleport out of the way, with only minor droplets on her skin that burned like fire. The beast followed.

It was momentarily distracted searching the smoking pile of acid for a pony. Naudia briefly came up beside Twilight.

"Magic doesn't work on it!?" Twilight said, adrenaline rushing through her veins.

"Indeed, Twilight," Naudia looked thoughtful for only a moment, but long enough for the beast to turn around and see them. "All right. I'll distract it. You find a really big rock."

Naudia buzzed off into the air, leaving Twilight alone, as the monster began another rage fueled charge.

Twilight turned tail and ran as fast as she could, looking everywhere she could in the desert for a rock of any kind, with the beast picking up speed behind her in long easy strides.

There were no rocks out here, so far as Twilight could see. She could hear the dragon directly behind her, feel its breath on her back. Turning her head one last desperate time as she topped another sand dune, she found exactly what she was looking for. She made a sharp turn to face the rocky outcropping. Behind her, the beast was struck by a changeling. The beast toppled, and tumbled down the sand dune, taking Naudia with it.

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Naudia was in dire straits. Even though she had her battle skin on, this was still a rough fall, and the dragon refused to stop trying to snap and bite at her as they rolled.

Separating at the bottom, the two collected themselves and began circling, both with a hefty respect for the other’s fighting skill.

Snarling, the dragon had enough of the changeling's stare and swiped at her with its serpentine tail. Naudia managed to dodge it, but was unable to dodge the claw that slammed into her, sending her flying head over hooves across the sands.

She barely had time to be on the defensive when another tail swipe whooshed past her head, missing her by inches.

Naudia snarled and blasted the lizard with magic, not to kill but to put him off balance, and then slammed into him, toppling the beast onto its back.

She began to go to work on its hide with her horn while it struggled to right itself. Six furious stabs later, she managed to slip it between two scales and twisted it around viciously, popping the scale off. The dragon screeched in fury.

Finally, the dragon threw her off and managed to flip itself over. Before it could manage to get its bearings again, Naudia was on its back, trying to work her horn in between the scales at the back of its neck.

The dragon furiously shook and twisted underneath her, trying to shake her off, but she held firm. Then she noticed a purple glow out of the corner of her eye.

"NOW, TWILIGHT!" Naudia shouted, leaping off the dragon, wings outspread.

And Twilight brought the boulder down on the dragon’s serpentine head.

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Twilight felt cold. Actually, she was uncomfortably hot in the desert, but she felt cold inside. She had killed a dragon with a rock.

An unlistened-to part of her mind told her that it was a feral animal that had been trying to kill and eat her. It could not be heard over the raging torment of her conscience which beat at her with accusations.

Twilight was shaken out of her thoughts when a rock next to her moved.

Glancing over at the strangely conical-shaped thing as it twitched slightly in the sand, she wondered why or how it could be moving like that when it burst up out of the ground on enormous spindly legs.

Towering over Twilight stood something. The only part of her mind that was still working called it a “sand walker.” It stood there, turning as if testing the wind for something, then it sped off towards the fallen dragon in long easy steps.

Twilight, morbidly curious and clearly not thinking straight at the moment, topped the dune and looked down to where the dragon lay still.

Seconds later, she jumped back down the side of the dune she came from, doing her best not to retch. Several seconds of trying to not to settle her stomach later, she felt an oddly hard and chitinous hoof on her shoulder.

This was enough to get her into scholar mode and completely sidetrack any thought of large, insectoid scavengers. Looking over questioningly at Naudia, she reached out and explored the hole- filled hoof that was touching her shoulder.

Contrary to... previous experience, Naudia's skin was stiff, chitinous, and slightly rough to the touch.

"While I appreciate the contact, Twilight," Naudia said, looking over at the sand dune, "we need to leave before this feeding frenzy comes in full force."

Twilight immediately felt like being sick again, but managed to force it down until they could get moving, and get her thoughts off what she had just seen.

"So… what happened back there?"

"Well we fought a feral dragon, Draco Adamas. They were in that book I gave you."

"No, I mean your skin was all chitinous, like I was expecting it to be when I first saw you."

"Oh, that." Naudia waved a hoof dismissively. "That's just changeling 'battle skin,' I guess you could call it. It helps us not get hurt in fights."

"How do you do it?"

"Well, as I'm sure you know, Twilight, changelings aren't like normal ponies."

"I'm sorry, but I really don’t know. I hadn't even heard about you before you attacked Canterlot. Even then, any information I could find was vague at best."

Naudia sighed, resigning herself to delivering a detailed explanation.

"Alright, Twilight. You know what a magical construct, is right? Good. Changelings are particularly stable magical constructs, made out of the love--or other emotions--from ponies, or other such intelligent species."

"Our ability to change ourselves comes from the fact that we are magical constructs. We can modify our physical form in certain ways. Now, we can't turn our hooves into swords, or things like that, but we can mimic all four types of ponies, most griffons, smaller dragons and certain other sentient creatures. Diamond dogs, for one."

"As well, during battle, we can change our skin from its normal consistency to more what you would expect from seeing us. We don't keep this up at all times for obvious reasons. Besides, it’s uncomfortable."

Twilight appeared to be thinking hard for the moment.

"So... you're not real?"

"What?"

"Well, you just told me that you're actually a magical construct."

"Twilight, I'm surprised at you. As the Element of Magic, you of all ponies should understand it."

Twilight looked at her quizzically.

"I'm sure that through all the studies that Celestia has put you through, you now understand that friendship is magic. Literally. We changelings just have a deeper connection to magic than ponies do, and, as such, a deeper understanding of what it is.

"You had to be taught that friendship is magic, Twilight. Changelings understand that intrinsically."

"We also understand that love..." Naudia looked Twilight directly in the eyes.

"Love is something greater."